Beverage preparation machines are well known in the food science and consumer goods area. Such machines allow a consumer to prepare at home a given type of beverage, for instance a coffee-based beverage, e.g. an espresso or a brew-like coffee cup.
Today, most beverage preparation machines for in-home beverage preparation comprise a system made of a machine which can accommodate portioned ingredients for the preparation of the beverage. Such portions can be soft pods or pads, or sachets, but more and more systems use semi-rigid or rigid portions such as rigid pods or capsules. In the following, it will be considered that the beverage machine of the invention is a beverage preparation machine working with a rigid or semi-rigid capsule.
The machine comprises a receptacle for accommodating said capsule and a fluid injection system for injecting a fluid, preferably water, under pressure into said capsule. Water injected under pressure in the capsule, for the preparation of a coffee beverage according to the present invention, is preferably hot, that is to say at a temperature above 70° C. However, in some particular instances, it might also be at ambient temperature. The pressure inside the capsule chamber during extraction and/or dissolution of the capsule contents is typically about 1 to about 8 bar for dissolution products and about 2 to about 12 bar for extraction of roast and ground coffee. Such a preparation process differs a lot from the so-called “brewing” process of beverage preparation—particularly for tea and coffee, in that brewing involves a long time of infusion of the ingredient by a fluid (e.g. hot water), whereas the beverage preparation process allows a consumer to prepare a beverage, for instance coffee, within a few seconds.
The principle of extracting and/or dissolving the contents of a closed capsule under pressure is known and consists typically of confining the capsule in a receptacle of a machine, injecting a quantity of pressurized water into the capsule, generally after piercing a face of the capsule with a piercing injection element such as a fluid injection needle mounted on the machine, so as to create a pressurized environment inside the capsule either to extract the substance or dissolve it, and then release the extracted substance or the dissolved substance through the capsule. Capsules allowing the application of this principle have already been described for example in applicant's European patent no. EP 1 472 156 B1, and in EP 1 784 344 B1.
Machines allowing the application of this principle have already been described for example in patents CH 605 293 and EP 242 556. According to these documents, the machine comprises a receptacle for the capsule and a perforation and injection element made in the form of a hollow needle comprising in its distal region one or more liquid injection orifices. The needle has a dual function in that it opens the top portion of the capsule on the one hand, and that it forms the water inlet channel into the capsule on the other hand.
The machine further comprises a fluid tank—in most cases this fluid is water—for storing the fluid that is used to dissolve and/or infuse and/or extract under pressure the ingredient(s) contained in the capsule. The machine comprises a heating element such as a boiler or a heat exchanger, which is able to warm up the water used therein to working temperatures (classically temperatures up to 80-90° C.). Finally, the machine comprises a pump element for circulating the water from the tank to the capsule, optionally though the heating element. The way the water circulates within the machine is e.g. selected via a selecting valve means, such as for instance a peristaltic valve of the type described in applicant's European patent application EP 2162653 A1.
When the beverage to be prepared is coffee, one interesting way to prepare the coffee is to provide the consumer with a capsule containing roast and ground coffee powder, which is to be extracted with hot water injected therein.
Capsules have been developed for such an application, which are described and claimed in applicant's European patent EP 1 784 344 B1, or in European patent application EP 2 062 831.
In short, such capsules comprise typically:
a hollow body and an injection wall which is impermeable to liquids and to air and which is attached to the body and adapted to be punctured by e.g. an injection needle of the machine,
a chamber containing a bed of roast and ground coffee to be extracted,
an aluminum membrane disposed at the bottom end of the capsule, closing the capsule, for retaining the internal pressure in the chamber, the membrane being associated with piercing means for piercing dispensing holes in the aluminum membrane when the internal pressure inside the chamber reaches a certain pre-determined value,
optionally, means configured to break the jet of fluid so as to reduce the speed of the jet of fluid injected into the capsule and distribute the fluid across the bed of substance at a reduced speed. It is often important for the consumer to know when the water level in the machine tank is too low to prepare a full beverage.
Capsules 100 of the prior art, as illustrated in FIG. 1, feature an injection wall or membrane 101 (referred to as top membrane) which is to be pierced by a fluid injection needle 102 of a beverage preparation machine (not shown; see e.g. 1 in FIG. 3) being part of a fluid system, e.g. as explained in connection with FIG. 8. When liquid is injected in a capsule compartment 103, a pressure is built up, which serves as an extraction means for extracting ingredients 104 contained inside the capsule, as described above.
In prior art capsules, when the needle 102 is removed from the capsule 100, after the beverage has been prepared and dispensed, the capsule top membrane 101 is now pierced and a hole 105 remains as illustrated in FIG. 2. However, in such a case, the internal or extraction fluid pressure “P” remains at least partly in the capsule compartment 103.
In case the capsule 100 contains soluble ingredient to extract, the capsule compartment 103 generally comprises one single portion, and the residual fluid pressure is distributed across the compartment volume.
In case the capsule compartment is divided into several portions, e.g. as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the residual pressure “P” is located in the top portion 106 of the capsule compartment 103, which accommodates the fluid injection needle 102 when inserted as illustrated in FIG. 1. In this case, the ingredient to be extracted 104, typically roast and ground coffee “RG”, is contained in a central portion 107 of the capsule where the top portion 106 is disposed above the central portion 107. In addition, another portion 108 is disposed below the central portion 107 and comprises another membrane 109 (referred to as bottom membrane) closing the capsule through which the extracted or dissolved substance is released as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 2.
In certain cases, due to the residual internal pressure P that remains inside the capsule compartment after the capsule has been used, liquid splashes—often referred to as “whale effect” or backflow of product—can spray out of the capsule top membrane 101, through the hole 105 pierced by the needle 102, at the time the consumer opens the brewing head of the machine. Such a backflow occurs when the consumer opens the brewing head of the machine too early, that is to say, before sufficient liquid inside the capsule has time to flow out and therefore before the residual pressure inside the capsule has been given enough time to decrease. In some exceptional cases, the backflow is very important due to a very high residual internal pressure within the capsule so that a jet of liquid splashes out of the capsule, which is named “whale effect”. Such a “whale effect” is represented in FIG. 2. Although such a phenomenon occurs randomly and infrequently, it is undesirable because hot liquid splashing out is messy. Moreover, in case the liquid is water mixed with an ingredient, such a leakage of liquid from the capsule top membrane is also undesirable for a cleanliness point of view, which forces the consumer to spend time cleaning the machine and its surroundings after usage.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a beverage preparation system and machine that prevents or at least reduces the so-called “whale effect” described above.